At the heart of Michael Ignatieff's disquieting novel of a woman's descent into illness are the tangled threads of a family, strained by tragedy yet still tenuously connected.

An anguished philosophy professor watches his dying mother's measured steps into the mysterious depths of neurological illness: the misplaced glasses, kitchen catastrophes, and anecdotes told over and over to a family overcome with fearful sympathy. His strenuous efforts to make sense of his mother's suffering lead him to learn all he can about her illness, renewing contact with his neurologist brother in the process. But medical science can do nothing to ease loss, and genetics now routinely predicts destinies that medicine is powerless to avert.
More than a tale of isolated tragedy, Scar Tissue explores the fragile lines of memory, their configuration in identity, and the ways in which both are at one moment formed and the next shattered. Nominated for the Booker Prize, Scar Tissue is an intensely personal novel about family, love in all its guises, and the ultimate triumph of life over loss.

"Ignatieff's novel impresses in its wisdom as much as in its restraint … This is a rich novel written by a magnanimous writer with an exquisite talent for naturalism." —The Times

Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian writer and historian. His books include Scar Tissue (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Russian Album, Blood And Belonging, The Warrior's Honour, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, and The Rights Revolution. His work has been translated into many languages and awarded numerous prizes and awards. Before being elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament in 2006, he was Professor of Human Rights and Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Until May 2011 Ignatieff was leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He lives in Toronto, where he teaches at the University of Toronto.

Michael Ignatieff's profile page

Finalist for the Booker Prize

"Triumphant … Scar Tissue escapes the narrow boundries of documentary fiction to speak profoundly of the universal human confrontation with death." —Maclean's

"Ignatieff's novel impresses in its wisdom as much as in its restraint…. This is a rich novel written by a magnanimous writer with an exquisite talent for naturalism." —The Times

"Much more than the personal tribute for lost parents it clearly is for its author as well as its narrator, [Scar Tissue] will speak to anybody who has endured, or only contemplated, equivalent suffering." —Times Literary Supplement